Hurricanes coach Al Golden: 'There's never been a better time to be at the University of Miami'

After his Hurricanes completed their first practice in Orlando ahead of Saturday's Russell Athletic Bowl, Miami coach Al Golden shared his thoughts on what the bowl experience means to his players and what kind of challenge Louisville quarterback Teddy Br

After his Hurricanes completed their first practice in Orlando ahead of Saturday's Russell Athletic Bowl, Miami coach Al Golden shared his thoughts on what the bowl experience means to his players and what kind of challenge Louisville quarterback Teddy Br

Christy Cabrera ChirinosSun Sentinel

A day before his Hurricanes took the field for their first bowl game since 2010, Miami coach Al Golden faced the inevitable question about his name being linked to job openings around the country as a "hot commodity" coach.

He started his answer by joking that maybe Louisville coach Charlie Strong, whose Cardinals will face the Hurricanes in Saturday's Russell Athletic Bowl and who has found himself in a similar situation, could join him on the dais for the answer.

Here's what Golden had to say:

“We’re at one of the greatest places there is in college football and we’ve gone through a hard time, but it’s hard to imagine places out there that you can sell, that you can present better than the University of Miami,” Golden said. “We know we’re not where we want to be, but we know we’re not where we were. Those were pretty dark days. Many of you covered it. We were on the cover of Sports Illustrated two years ago and it wasn’t because we were holding up a trophy. They wanted to end the program. I dealt with masses of media my first training camp at the University of Miami. If you can imagine, throngs of media three, four times the size of this and the questions were ‘Are you going to have a team next year?’ I couldn’t believe it. But we had a lot of young men that stood with the University of Miami, we had a lot of coaches and staff that stood with the University of Miami through dark times and dark days. We’re excited about moving the program forward. We’re excited about the experience this week and the opportunity that we have and all that we’re doing.

“We just moved into a new football complex, we just finished a new student center on campus. There’s never been a better time to be at the University of Miami in terms of the educational opportunities, in terms of everything we can afford young people in our college town of Coral Gables, South Miami, Coconut Grove…we haven’t had the opportunity to really sell it and I’m looking forward to doing that in January.”

Golden, who has a 22-14 record in his three years at Miami heading into Saturday’s bowl game, is under contract with Miami through February 1, 2020. He signed a four-year extension to stay with the school after the 2011 season.